10/02/2009 @ 5:08PM

Letterman Had Sex, So What?

David Letterman shocked his audience and our tabloid hearts last night when he announced that he had been the victim of a sex-tortion plot. As you’ve certainly read, watched and re-tweeted, an Emmy Award-winning
CBS
producer attempted to blackmail him to the tune of $2 million over alleged affairs Letterman had with at least one staffer of his talk show.

Joe Halderman, the now in-custody 48 Hours producer, briefly lived with Letterman’s former assistant, Stephanie Birkitt, a long-time and current
CBS
employee. It’s been reported that Halderman had come across her diary detailing an affair with the Late Show host and decided to try to turn her confessions into a quick payday.

Letterman thwarted the plan with a phony $2 million check, followed by a “bizarre” and “terrifying few weeks,” culminating in a grand jury appearance and mea culpa during last night’s opening monologue: “I have had sex with women who work for me on this show. My response to that is ‘Yes, I have.’ “

The media has outed at least one woman, Birkitt, a 34-year-old petite blond. If there have been others–and let’s figure there are, considering he admitted to having sex with “women” (plural)–they are sure to come out of the woodwork.

With Birkitt, Letterman, 62, has made it clear that he likes the younger ladies; his wife, Regina Lasko, is 48. And though Letterman is hardly a good-looking guy, it’s not a stretch to see how women could be charmed by his knowing sense of humor, boyish gap-toothed smile and tremendous wealth, power and celebrity. In truth, his inter-office affairs appear to be simply adults who got consensually busy.

“But he’s the boss!” Hoda Kotb protested on this morning’s Today Show when she and Kathy Lee Gifford pulled together an impromptu panel of media people to discuss the breaking scandal. Her take, like that of so many others, is that a sexual relationship between a boss and an employee is wrong. Period. Any such relationship must surely mean that some form of sexual harassment or abuse of power is taking place.

Really? We know that workplace romances happen–close quarters, long hours and shared interests are often the heady building blocks of all manner of relationships, from friendships to the most charged affairs. And while no one can deny that on-the-job sexual harassment and illicit propositions continue to take place, a consensual relationship between two adults, no matter who’s the boss, is not the same thing–and the two shouldn’t be equated or confused.

I’m a 26-year-old, attractive, well-educated professional. Have I had relationships within companies I’ve worked for? You bet. Have I ever slept with my boss? No, but I have friends, fellow young women, who are currently in the midst of normal, healthy, happy relationships with their bosses. I know other women who have married their bosses and have built a solid family and life with them. Love (and lust) happens.

While the details of both the extortion plot and Letterman’s workplace sexual dalliances are still trickling in, and not a single staffer has personally come forward to the press, or to press charges, I’m going to hold the position that Letterman didn’t do anything wrong–with the possible exception of hurting his wife and disregarding the CBS Employee Handbook.

Here’s the irony: The real injured party here is Lasko, the comic’s wife of six months, girlfriend of 23 years and mother of their 6-year-old son, Harry. And where did they hook up? She was a former staffer on … The Late Show.